A HISTORY OF UKRAINE. EPISODE 6. IRON AGE: THE CIMMERIANS

After the settlement of the different Indo-European tribes, part of them, i.e. the Indo-Iranian tribes, remained in the steppes of southern Ukraine and Crimea. They were thus named because ethnic groups related to them settled also in North India and Iran.

Indo-Iranians, or Cimmerians, who lived in the territory of Ukraine became the first people in Eastern Europe to be mentioned in a written source, the "Iliad" by the Greek poet Homer. They had long swords and attacked settlements in modern central Ukraine.

Cimmerians, image on an ancient Etruscan vase

In the 7th century BC, the Scythians came to Ukraine. This was another Indo-Iranian tribe that returned to Ukraine from Asia. Some Cimmerians submitted to the Scythians, others died in a war and the rest left their homeland and embarked on a journey to the heart of civilization at the time — Asia Minor and the Middle East — where they started attacking the states of Lydia, Urartu and Assyria, as well as Greek cities.